When will Fremantle get another golden opportunity?

ROSS Lyon had all the answers in what was an utterly compelling media conference following Friday night's preliminary final defeat to Hawthorn, but the hurt was plain for all to see.

WATCH: Ross Lyon's full post-match media conference

Fremantle might have made a Grand Final in 2013, the second year after Lyon's shock defection from St Kilda, but it is 2015 that the Dockers will rue a golden opportunity lost.

They enjoyed a great run into the Grand Final two years ago but in reality, they were the second best team for the year. Hawthorn, which lost just three matches, was the deserving and rightful premier.

This was the year Fremantle should have won the flag. The Dockers entered the season with hundreds more miles in their legs, after the equivalent of a month's extra pre-season training. The playing list was fit, hungry and experienced. And in Nat Fyfe, they had the best player in the competition at their disposal.

And in starting the season 8-0, Fremantle put itself in the enviable position of managing the loads of its senior core through the remaining two-thirds of the home and away season, to be cherry-ripe for September and hopefully, early October.

In 2013, the Dockers went with Hawthorn for much of the Grand Final. In terms of intent and endeavour, the Dockers were admirable. But skill execution brought them undone on that day, and did so again this time around.

While Hawk Matt Suckling was kicking 55-metre set shots for goal after the siren, Jon Griffen was hitting the post and Chris Mayne and Michael Barlow were missing wide right.

Once again, Fremantle's appetite for the contest was first-rate. But little things at critical moments let them down again. In the third term of the 2013 Grand Final, Fremantle had Hawthorn on the ropes and was landing some nice body punches, but couldn't land any of those figurative blows to the head, which would have turned the game its way for good.

And it was the same in the last quarter on Friday night. The Dockers had all the run, got to within nine points and the Purple Army (at least the well-behaved ones), were baying. Yet in the white-hot moments came the errors, Tom Sheridan had his 'Herschelle Gibbs moment', fumbling the mark that allowed Cyril Rioli to swoop. Tendai Mzungu failed to outmark Suckling, which allowed Rioli to goal again and it was effectively game over.

Lyon said afterwards that he and his coaching staff need to get better. But composure and execution in the white-hot moments of a preliminary final, does that get back to the coaches, or is that only something the players can take on board for themselves? Are the off-the-ball incidents, as trifling as they might appear, something the coaches can eradicate from Freo's game?

Leigh Matthews was right when he said that Fremantle's appetite, endeavour and pressure cannot be faulted. But when it comes to skill execution by hand and foot, the Hawks do it better.

It will be a searching and challenging off-season. Luke McPharlin, defensive linchpin and clubhouse leader, appears to have retired. Matthew Pavlich's future remains in doubt. An ornament to his club and to the game, Pavlich looked great early but ran out of puff, hurt his leg and finished with just 11 disposals and a seat on the bench.

He didn't impact the scoreboard enough and it is the problem that continues to plague the Dockers. On a perfect night for football on their home deck, they kicked just 10.7.

Lyon knows Fremantle needs to hit the scoreboard more. His post-season post-mortems have reached the same conclusion in each of the last three years. Michael Walters and Hayden Ballantyne play the small forward role well enough, but they need to find their next star key forward because pretty much every premiership team features one.

It could be Matt Taberner or perhaps Michael Apeness. Or it might yet be Cam McCarthy, who the Dockers would love to bring home from Greater Western Sydney.

The Giants say he's off-limits, but then again, they said the same thing about Tom Boyd this time last year, which means there is a negotiation to be had.

The Dockers will be a great story to follow from here on in. They have mainly tried, and failed, to land the big free agents and trade targets so their October machinations will be intriguing. And then there's Lyon, with two years remaining on his contract and who history suggests, might not be inclined to stick around any longer than that if he doesn't see a premiership coming any time soon.

In the meantime, does he persist with a gameplan that gets his side into contention but no further? Or does he throw the whole thing in the rubbish bin and start again? Luke Beveridge's 12-month do-over of the Western Bulldogs shows how quickly a change in outlook and philosophy.

Lyon won't lack for motivation when he gathers the troops back from pre-season at the end of November. But he'll also know that everything fell into place for Fremantle in 2015 and the side couldn't even make it to the Grand Final.

This was the golden opportunity lost. Who knows when everything will be so perfectly aligned for Fremantle once again?